Leeds United and Ipswich Town results '100 per cent affect' Leicester City man in Championship promotion race

Leicester City defender Conor Coady admits he is now regularly checking on Leeds United and Ipswich Town in the hope of seeing promotion rivals drop points.

Leicester fell from the top of the Championship table over the weekend, having lost 1-0 at Plymouth Argyle - their second defeat of the week against relegation-threatened opposition. Neither Leeds nor Ipswich managed to win on Saturday but the latter got a point at home to Middlesbrough and climbed into first as a result.

Leeds and Ipswich have just three games of the regular season remaining, compared to Leicester’s four and Southampton’s five, with any slip-ups potentially proving fatal in the promotion race. The season is now at a point in which fans are equally invested in opposition results as those of their own team and Coady is no different.

“Without a doubt, I think that is natural,” Coady told BBC’s Football Daily Podcast when asked if he has been watching Leeds and Ipswich. “Chris [Sutton] will probably tell you from playing football, I love football so I look at results all the time.

“I can come in, whether I should or shouldn’t do it, I look at the results, of course I do, seeing how they get on and hoping they’ve lost so you gain a bit of ground or to bridge a gap. 100 per cent it affects you, but over the last week we’ve spoken as a team of the results we have had at Leicester.

“We can’t concentrate on what anyone else is doing, it’s us and that’s it. That’s how you’ve got to be and that’s how we believe we have got to be because when you are in touching distance of what you worked all season for. But like I said, 100 per cent being human beings, I’d be silly if I sat here now and said I don’t look at other results.”

A game in hand means promotion is still very much in Leicester’s own hands but while they will welcome consecutive home games, the visits of West Brom and Southampton to the King Power Stadium present a tough challenge for Enzo Maresca’s men. Southampton won twice last week and have pulled themselves back into contention for a top-two spot.

The table could look incredibly tight by the end of this week, with Southampton able to pull level on points with Leeds if they beat both Preston North End and Cardiff City. But Daniel Farke’s side could then open up a four-point gap on Ipswich if they beat Middlesbrough and QPR, with Kieran McKenna’s side not in action until next Saturday.